I like you
by kaylagc
Summary: Rachel doesn't treat Gary like other people do. He likes that.


**I like you**  
><em>Rachel doesn't treat Gary like other people do. He likes that.<em>

Notes: The third scene kept playing over and over in my head and I had to write something around it. Gary and Rachel are just cute! I'm genuinely surprised that they are the main couple people are going for though! I 3 them, but I expected Hicks/Nina to be the most popular lol! Can't wait for the next ep and am I weird for hoping for Anna to show up again soon? Anyway, story time! R&R much appreciated! :)

Gary was walking down the hallway in the office, flipping through frequencies when he heard voices coming from one of the offices. He stopped and listened to the conversation because the first voice he'd heard was Rachel and she sounded mad. Rachel didn't get mad very much. This was different. Different was interesting.

"Nina, I don't want to talk about it!" Rachel was frustrated. Her friend, co-work, and now temporary roommate would not let up on this date conversation and it was starting to drive her a little crazy.

Nina rolled her eyes. Rachel hadn't been on very many dates, that much she knew, and Nina knew _something_had happened that night with Sam and she was determined to find out what it was. "Just tell me what happened." she said, "I'm not going to mock you or anything, Rachel. I want to help you, give you some tips-"

"I don't _need_ tips, Nina. That's not the problem!" she was moving to exit her friend's office, but the taller woman cut her off.

"Rachel," Nina rested a hand on her shoulder, "I know you're not used to opening up your life to people, but it's obvious you need to talk. This is girl talk...do you really want to have this conversation with Dr. Rosen?" She arched an eyebrow at her friend.

Rachel sighed, "No," she reached up, pressing her hand to her forehead for a moment, shaking her head and moving to sit on the couch in Nina's office. "It's nothing, really...we went out to dinner and we had a great time." The pointed look she was getting from Nina made her continue, "We went back to your place and...we were kissing and...I couldn't take it, I had to ask him to leave."

"What do you mean?"

Rachel gave Nina a pointed look of her own. "Are you forgetting how sensitive all my senses are? I can't handle it, Nina... I'm never going to find anyone that can handle _me_because I can't be touched like that without being just...completely overloaded. Who wants to be with someone like that?"

"Oh, honey." Nina hugged her friend gently. "You'll find someone, it'll just take some time." she said before switching to a slightly less serious, more Nina tone, "And a lot more dates." she grinned.

Rachel laughed softly, "Oh, Nina." She shook her head.

"You can't act any way you want and expect people to just be okay with it, Gary." Rachel could hear Bill's stern voice as she walked down the hall to the lounge. She shook her head, Bill really didn't know how to handle the young man. "You have to show respect to receive it."

Rachel walked in as Bill made his second comment to the transducer and gave him a look. Before she could speak, Bill was already going.

"Rachel, you don't know the whole story," but she cut him off.

"Yes, I do." She said simply. "But that isn't even important. You can't talk to Gary like he's a child. He's not and I'm sure he would appreciate it if you didn't treat him as such." She wasn't sure why, but for some reason, people being mean to Gary got her all worked up and annoyed.

Bill sighed and shook his head, walking out of her room without so much as another word or glance to either of them.

"Are you okay, Gary?" She asked gently.

"Fine." he said quickly, his hands moving across air as they almost constantly did, and without another word, he was walking out of the room, surely heading to his office.

Rachel sighed. She wasn't sure what to make of that. Was he really 'fine', as he said, or was he upset and not wanting to talk? 

Gary walked down the hallway to Rachel's office. He had something he felt that he needed to tell her and, well, he'd waited long enough and he was tired of waiting. Or maybe he wasn't. He hesitated outside her office door before he gathered himself again and knocked on her door, but he didn't wait for her answer before he walked in. "Hi, Rachel."

Rachel was going over some paperwork when the sudden knock came and startled her. She glanced up when the door swung open before she could form a response to the knock and her features softened into a small smile, "Hi, Gary. Is everything okay?"

"Yes, I just wanted to talk to you." He said, scrolling through different frequencies. He glanced in Rachel's general direction, but not directly at her before his eyes darted back to the rainbow of lines in front of him again.

"Okay," she said, a little confused, looking up at him.

"I like you, Rachel."

That shocked her. But she gently reminded herself that he probably didn't mean it the way she initially thought. "I like you too, Gary." She smiled softly.

"No. I mean. I like you more than other people." He walked across the room and sat down on the couch that sat on the wall. "You don't treat me like a child."

"Of course not, why would I? You're not a child, Gary."

"I know. I know that. But most people...they don't think that. Or they don't act like they do, anyway. Everybody always talks to me like that and I hate it. I _hate it_." The annoyance in his voice threw both of them off a little and he shook his head. "But you don't do that and...I don't know why you don't, but...thank you."

You're welcome, Gary." Rachel's smile brightened, "You know...Bill, he just doesn't-"

"I don't want to talk about him." he said quickly, a pause and then, "Sorry...uhm, you can say what you were going to say, I just...sorry."

"It's okay." She assured him, "we don't have to talk about him."

There was a silence between them for a moment and Rachel went back to her paperwork as Gary flicked through the blinding colors in front of his eyes. Suddenly, he spoke again. "I heard you and Nina this morning."

Rachel felt her heart skip a beat at that news. "O-oh?"

"You said you'd never find anybody to be with you because you can't handle being touched because of your Alpha ability." He said, as if it were normal to have a conversation with someone about another conversation they had eavesdropped on.

Rachel frowned. Somehow, the way it sounded coming from him, it made her feel worse about the whole idea of it all. "Yes." she said, her voice soft, quiet, eyes locked on the paperweight on her desk.

"I was just thinking, I mean, maybe you should find someone who doesn't like to be touched," he said it so casually, but there was a small hint of something in his voice, something about that little half-smile on his face that said he meant more than the words on the surface. "Then it wouldn't matter, right?"

His words hit her with the force of a ton of bricks. That hint of something in his voice, and in that smile, it was practically screaming, _You could be with me_to her and the idea, well, it didn't seem all that bad to her. "You're right," she nodded, a faint smile playing on her lips. "Absolutely right."

"It's almost time to go home. I'll talk to you tomorrow, Rachel." and with that, he got up and walked out of her office with a small wave and he was gone, leaving Rachel to her thoughts which she felt a need to organize now.


End file.
